The use of a word or phrase to refer to something that it is not, invoking a direct similarity between the word or phrase used and the thing described (but in the case of English without the words like or as, since use of those words would imply a simile); the word or phrase used in this way; an implied comparison.
User Defined Definitions
"a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity"